NZ 2 UK by Bike: 15th June - Hiking Longsheng

This was the view out of my window this morning. Very pretty but very wet!

Woke up at 7.30 and saw that it there was torrential rain outside and so promptly went back to bed for an hour and listened to radio 4 (I love podcasts).

I showered and got ready and then had a small bowl of porridge but then ended up joining the family that own the guest house for a big breakfast. I could not resist when it was all put in front of me. There were about 5 of them and a huge number of dishes including fish, prawns, meat, 2 types of eggs and some vegetables with rice. Ummmm. I was quiet glad of it later as it lasted me the whole day. The family are very friendly and welcoming. I have been pleasantly surprised by the hospitality of the Chinese people. They would not accept any money for this breakfast feast! It was good to have some company even though they only speak limited English.

They were laughing at me as I headed out into the heavy rain with my waterproofs. They kindly directed me to the path to the next village. There are flagstone paths which connect all of the villages in this scenic area.

The houses are similar to French Chalets. They even smell the same.

It really rained heavily for most of the morning and afternoon and my map got rather wet... but maybe you can see the route from this. There is the main tour bus route which takes the road up with then a short walk to the view points. If you walk along the flagstone paths between the villages instead though you get to see so much more. Really excellent walking but a long days walk to do the circuit.

I really enjoyed getting off the main tourist trail from the tour buses to the top and walking on the local paths between the villages. I did not see another tourist for hours but every now and again I would met a local planting rice or just walking on the path. Nearly everyone of them gestured that I should have a rain coat or use a brolly. It was warm rain and by this time I was so totally soaked that it really did not matter as I could not possibly get any more wet.

There were many older people with their traditional rain covers made of small sticks bound together.

I stopped for a little while to sort out my bag under some shelter in a village only to find that my "dry" bags are no longer water proof. Everything was soaked through including my camera and my spare clothes.... I could not get any good photos as there was mist on the lens.

It is so beautiful. I was gutted not to see this area in better light and to get some fab photos. I have seen some other amazing photos of the area and I was jealous.

Even with the mist and the rain it was still amazing. I would recommend a visit to anyone. The way the light shines on the water is just beautiful. It reminded me of Nepal. A very similar way of life for the people.

I had walked about 27km in the mountains. I think I should rename this trip biking and hiking from NZ to the UK as about 1/3 of the time I seem to be hiking or running round.....

In the village I took a wrong turn trying to find the road and AGAIN met up with Jean Marc and Marrie! Very strange. They arrived this afternoon and are staying in the area for another few days. I decided not to stay where they were staying and head back to where I had left my bike and things and stay one more night there. It was 5pm and I still had another 15km or so to walk back. Off I set along the road but about halfway a bus came along and I jumped on. The road went through a lovely area but I had seen though of it today and was quite happy not to be walking on tarmac all the way home....